Scholarship Administrators from Abroad Gather at TC for Professional Development

Eight
administrators of the Ryoichi Sasakawa Young Leaders Fellowship Fund
(SYLFF), came to Teachers College for a four-week professional
development program sponsored by the Global Foundation for Research and
Scholarship in Tokyo. The program was directed by James Shields, a
Project Coordinator at the Center for Educational Outreach and
Innovation.

Shoichi Katayama, the Administrative Director
of the Scholarship Division at the Global Foundation presented an
overview of the program. Shields and Associate Professor Florence
McCarthy were the primary instructors for the four-week period.
Workshops focused on issues involved with international education and
educational administration.

"We highlighted the conflict between
the increasing economic globalization and the need to appreciate the
importance of local and national cultures," Shields said. "This
conflict creates a need to foster compassionate and caring relations
among all people through higher education."

Shields said that
SYLFF funds are given to 59 universities around the world to create
scholarship programs for graduate students who show promise as future
leaders. The professional development program was established to help
each university manage the program and the endowment effectively.
February's workshops made up the first phase in a three-year program
that provides three components to participants.

The first
component of each program is the combination of English language
courses for professional purposes and the sessions at TC on
international education and educational administration.

In
addition, they attended networking and cultural events around the city
to enhance their workshop discussions. One of their cultural and
networking excursions was to the Carnegie Council on Ethics and
International Affairs to meet with the program directors about their
programs in global environmental issues and human rights issues. "They
visited Harlem and spent an evening at a jazz club," Shields added. The
group also went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, attended a TC
BookTalk held at the Japan Society, and took a trip to Philadelphia to
see Independence Hall.

The second component is a four-day
Washington based workshop at the office of the Institute of
International Education to give the administrators an understanding of
important national educational institutions and build on the
discussions at TC.

Finally, a range of support activities will
be provided to participants over the program's projected three-year
span to maintain a sense of continuity.

Shields noted that, "A
considerable amount of attention was given to how to make international
exchange more effective and more responsible."

Marion
Boultbee, International Student and Scholar Services Coordinator, spoke
about the foreign student program at TC. Five students in that program,
who represented the various countries that the administrators were
from, spoke about their experiences at Teachers College.

"They
were very interested in how we deal with foreign students," Shields
said, "but they were also interested in the financial management and
the administration of our foreign student programs." Shields brought in
Sharon Hewitt Watkins, the Controller, and Steven Weinberg, Director of
Budget and Planning, to address the group about grants and financial
administration.

Ozlen Kuncek, a participant from Ankara
University in Turkey, said that the program gave the group a chance to
learn about higher education in the United States and to think about
what international education should be. "We are trying to find a common
basis," she said, "by developing proposals for the betterment of
relations between SYLFF members and the betterment of procedures in our
institutions."

At the end of the four weeks, the group compiled
a final report in which they described the SYLFF program at their
universities, noting the strengths and weaknesses of each. They also
outlined recommendations for the SYLFF program in general. Proposals
included using the Internet to promote collaboration among SYLFF
institutions, setting up an international financial network among the
institutions, and holding a regional forum for SYLFF program fellows
that would focus on ethics and globalization. "SYLFF will use the
project to improve its operations, and the participants will each have
a copy of their own," Shields said.

February's participants came
from universities in Turkey, Thailand, Portugal, Italy, China, Kenya,
and Korea. The next session of SYLFF workshops is scheduled for June,
1999, and a third session will be in June 2000.